Antibody-Mediated Pathogen Resistance in Plants.

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Molecular Biology
• Plant Biotechnology

Background:

• Fungal pathogens pose a significant threat to crop production worldwide.
• Developing sustainable and effective disease resistance strategies in plants is crucial for food security.
• Genetic engineering offers a promising avenue for enhancing plant defense mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for creating transgenic plants with enhanced resistance to fungal pathogens.
• To produce pathogen-specific single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibodies fused to antifungal peptides (AFPs).
• To evaluate the efficacy of scFv-AFP fusion proteins in conferring resistance against Fusarium species.

Main Methods:

• Selection of avian scFv antibodies recognizing Fusarium fungal surface proteins using phage display.
• Construction of scFv-AFP fusion protein constructs.
• Transient expression in tobacco (Nicotiana spp.) and stable expression in Arabidopsis thaliana plants.

Main Results:

• Successful generation of transgenic plants expressing scFv-AFP fusion proteins.
• Demonstrated in vitro activity of selected antibody-peptide fusions against fungal targets.
• Potential for generating plants resistant to specific pathogens like Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. matthiolae.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables the production of transgenic plants with built-in resistance to fungal diseases.
• scFv-AFP fusion proteins represent a viable strategy for engineering crop protection.
• This approach holds promise for sustainable agriculture and reducing crop losses due to fungal infections.